ClampArt is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Romanian-born photographer, Ion Zupcu. This is the artist’s third solo show at the gallery.

Zupcu is playfully methodical when it comes to his art making practice. He sketches almost daily in his studio, mapping out ideas for three-dimensional experiments which are later recorded onto film. A distinctly Modernist aesthetic has resonated throughout his work since the beginning of his career in the 1980s. Initially influenced by the Constructivists’ use of dramatic and unexpected perspectives, in addition to the bold lines and compositions of Russian Revolutionary art from the Stalinist era, he later studied the delicate shapes sculpted and photographed by fellow Romanian artist, Constantin Brancusi. After immigrating to the United States in 1991, the scope of his inspiration expanded to include American Minimalism, as seen in the repetition and reconfigurations present in “Painted Cubes.”

In this newest body of work, Zupcu is responding to his drawings of the cube and intensely ruminating on the perception of scale and the illusion of depth. This series of images pushes the sculpted three-dimensional forms into varying and often layered arrangements. Deceivingly small, the actual cubes Zupcu photo-graphs are over-painted with thick brushstrokes, bringing forth their sculptural qualities and heightening their depth—especially when they are introduced to the soft, natural light streaming through the windows of Zupcu’s studio. In some images, the cubes have been reduced to mere lines. Other photographs play with one’s sense of gravity, creating what seem to be impossible realities achieved through multiple exposures.

This press release draws upon Madeline Yale’s essay which accompanies the exhibition she curated of Ion Zupcu’s work, “Discoveries of the Meeting Place,” FotoFest, Houston, Texas.